Most important apps/websites for Bali

Grab & Gojek

Other than Google Maps, these two apps will be the most important apps that you'll need when you come to Bali, certainly if you don't plan to rent a scooter and/or if you want to order food. They're kind of like Uber & Uber Eats combined, with way more features, and way way cheaper prices.

Here's the main things they cover:

• transport (ordering cars/scooters)

• food (take-out or pick-up)

• shopping deliveries (groceries, pharmacy items, etc)

• sending items (you can literally send something to a friend rather than taking it to them)

But you can also use them for things like paying bills and taxes, moving house and transporting a lot, etc. It's crazy how much you can do on them 😂

The apps both do very similar things but have slight differences, and often prices on one are less than another and then it switches over on another occasion, so it's worth downloading both of them.

Some people do struggle to download one or either of them until they're in Bali - if this happens you can either try to download them using a VPN that is set to Indonesia (see Digital Nomad Starter Pack) or wait until you arrive - when you exit the airport in Bali there's actually a Grab lounge and a Gojek lounge, and from here you can download the apps and order a taxi to you accomodation for much cheaper than a regular taxi (if you want a car sorted for when you arrive though, see taxi section).

For online shopping & deliveries see below (Shopee & Tokopedia, DHL & Fedex)

Google maps (not Apple Maps)

This is arguably the most important app, especially if you decide to rent a scooter instead of using Grab/Gojek - you need to know how to get around. If you're used to using Apple Maps, you're gonna have to get un-used to it, because no one here uses it and all the locations are always wrong.. trust me save yourself the stress!

Google Maps is absoulutely ideal for navigating yourself around here - when we're driving our scooter to somewhere new we just put one earphone in connected to our phone and listen to the navigation instructions - it's always accurate.

The other great thing is the app that this guide is on is fully integrated with Google Maps, so if you're on one of our "Things to do" and you scroll to the bottom and click "get directions", it will open up the location of that place in Google Maps and you can navigate from there.

Revolut/Monzo/Wise

These banking apps are honestly game changers for traveling, but also just in general - when we first came to Bali we just had regular UK bank accounts, and we were getting absolutely wrecked by international exchange and withdrawal fees. Phil personally was losing around £30+ a month to this.

We got Revolut accounts, and instantly saved so much money. You can also hold, spend in and exchange multiple different currencies, which is really useful if you earn in different currencies - in general you just save so much on those rates that normally cost you a fortune. Also Revolut was way easier to set up than we thought it would be, you literally just download the app and order a card, so don't stress about that!

It's worth looking online into which (Revolut/Monzo/Wise) is best suited for you specifically, or whether to just get all of them, because they're very similar but vary slightly in terms of what they offer - but either way they'll all save you so much more than just using your regular bank.

Currency converter

A currency converter app is so useful, especially when the currency is currently $1 USD = RP 16215.37 as I'm writing this.. it's pretty confusing 😂

Once you get used to it you can work out some rough calculations in your head, but you definitely want to get an app so you can quickly do accurate check sometimes, especially offline for when you don't have wifi or data - we use this app.

Instagram & Whatsapp

Every single business in Bali uses Instagram or Whatsapp to communicate, so they're very useful to have if you don't have them already!

Instagram is great because businesses usually have all their info on there, including contact numbers (via Whatsapp), Google Maps link, website, photos of what they offer, info about special deals, etc - where they exist we've added the Instagram page link on each of our "Things to do" so you can easily find out all the up to date info about them.

Less important apps:

ClassPass

ClassPass is an absolute game changer for Bali!

The fact is the majority of people coming here are travelling or on holiday, and don’t want to buy memberships at gyms or package deals when they’ll realistically only train once or twice at each place, or maybe they won’t.. you never know! You want to just check out anywhere without it being super pricey, and if you like it you might go back!

That’s where ClassPass is amazing, Bali is full of gyms, martial arts and boxing places, Pilates, etc etc, and they’re pretty much all on ClassPass! If you’ve not used it before, you get a number or credits per month and classes or gym access costs a certain number of credits!

If you want to try it out, you have one free month using this link - and that’s not just in Bali, that’s anywhere in the world!

NordVPN

Not everyone will need a VPN, but there's a few reasons why you might want to get one if you're coming to Bali:

• if you're working and you need your IP address to be set to your home country (to access things / so your boss doesn't know you're away!)

• if you're a content creator (not having a VPN means you're content will eventually get targeted to local audiences)

• if you just want or need to access certain content (a lot of content is blocked in Indonesia: websites, music, films)

In most cases, having a VPN lets you do all these things (see Digital Nomad Starter Pack), which isn't something we realised until about a year into being in Bali, and when we did, it was a game changer.

We got NordVPN as it's the top rated VPN, and it's been great. We also have a link that currently gives you up to 74% off which is insane.

Shopee & Tokopedia

If you're struggling to find things in the shops in Bali, or they're just a bit overpriced, there's good news and bads news.. the bad news is Amazon doesn't exist here (or is really expensive), the good news is Indonesia has its own versions of Amazon! The main one is Shopee, and the other is Tokopedia.

They're really useful if you're staying here in one place for more than 2 weeks, but if you're not, that's how long they can sometimes take to deliver, so they're probably not worth using if you're going to leave your place before something has time to arrive.

If you're here long term they're insanely handy - we order all sorts of random bits from Shopee all the time, including new filters pieces for our shower filter, things for the cat, etc. and they're really cheap! You can find all sorts on there!

The only issue you might have is that they aren't currently very compatible with non-Indonesian phone numbers and bank accounts - we used to use Tokopedia and had a friend's local number linked to it, but now we use Shopee more because you can log in via Whatsapp, which you don't need a local phone number for. Unfortunately though you an only access the online version, you can't download the Shopee app unless your phone in registered here, which is a bit annoying because a few products here and there have deals that can only be used if you have the app - still great sites though!

Also to pay, unless you have an Indonesian bank account,what you need to do is select the Indomaret payment option, and go to your closest Indomaret (they're everywhere) to pay in cash.

DHL & Fedex

These are the best services for international delivery, DHL being the best. We've had to have a few things delivered to Bali from abroad, and DHL is the fastest and most reliable, and the best for tracking your order.

Bare in mind though that import taxes in Bali can be absolutely extortionate - it's usually just 10% VAT and 7.5% import duty, but it really depends from product to product, but branded shoes have a 40% import duty for some reason.